Women's Spaces Radio Show of 8/2/2021 with host Elaine B Holtz and guest Dr. Barnsley Brown on Mary and Divine Feminism

1. Our guest, Dr. Barnsley Brown (aka Dr. Barnsley)
takes us on a journey of how Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene, the close disciple of Jesus, would be presented if the authors of the gospels were women. The male authors presented Mary as fragile demurring and timid; but Dr. Barnsley presentsMary as a feminine force to be reckoned with and reads us a her poem I Am Mary (transcript further down this page). She states that Divine Feminism is the embodiment of the Divine Feminine, the protector of off-spring. She notes that George Floyd's last words as he was being suffocated to death by Police Officer Chauvin was a cry to his mother, so close is the mother to us all.

About our Guest: Dr. Barnsley Brown, Ph.D., taught at Wake Forest University, Duke, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before starting her own business, Spirited Solutions Professional Speaking and Coaching, over twenty years ago. She loves helping busy professionals, women, and business owners have more time, energy, and money right now!
Dr. Barnsley is a member of the National Speakers Association and other professional organizations, and is a frequent speaker for business, spiritual, and women's groups. She is also an ordained Interfaith Minister and has trained thousands of people in the Reiki Method of Natural Stress and Pain Relief in five countries across the globe. Her Make It Happen Mastermind Coaching Program helps spiritual women in business double and triple their income and impact in the world!

I Am Mary, Mother of Jesus
by Barnsley Brown

© Dr. Barnsley Brown and Spirited Solutions, 2021.
No duplication without permission. (Permission granted for post to Wommensspaces.com by the author.)

I am Mary the mother of Jesus. You may be used to seeing me depicted this way...demure, quiet, gentle, even fragile, but let me show you who I really am. Let me take off this head wrap and invite you to walk a few miles in my sandals.

Do you realize that I was just between 12 and 14 years old and engaged to Joseph when I had the vision of Gabriel visiting me and telling me that I would carry the son of God?

It wasn’t that unusual for girls to be engaged at 12 years old, but can you imagine the faith and strength and trust in God that it took for me to take on the task of carrying, giving birth to, and raising Jesus?

Can you imagine what it was like for me to sit down with Joseph after my vision and say, “Sweetie we need to talk,” knowing full well that what I had to say sounded crazy and he could very well abandon me. Think about it. I was pregnant but not with his child.

I risked everything for this baby, the son of God. I risked being ridiculed, abandoned, socially ostracized, and even killed because I was bearing the child the prophets said was the son of God.

Could you have done all this at 12 or 13 years old?

I had to leave my family, my possessions, everything that I knew and travel with Joseph to Bethlehem. We travelled day and night and I rode on a donkey much of the way because I was so pregnant. It was a hard, rough, long trip and all we had was our faith to sustain us. Can you imagine how alone and afraid I felt at times wondering what would become of us?

You ask me where you can find me in your modern world. Some of you call me the feminine principle of God...the nurturing feminine principle...But I assure you I am much much more!!

You can see me in the teenage unwed mother who, despite all obstacles and social disapproval, decides to keep her child and do whatever it takes to raise her.

You can see me in the faces of mothers of teenagers and adult children addicted to opioids. Like me, those mothers wonder when will be the last time they see their beloved child.

You can see me in the faces of all the teachers of elementary school children who love them and care for them, worry about their welfare, and then have to let them go at the end of the year. Those children were theirs to steward, but only for a time.

You can see me in the face of the victim of domestic violence who makes the terrifying decision to leave economic security and everything else behind so she can take care of her children and keep them safe.

You can see me in the faces of every mother who has ever lost a child who was brutally and senselessly murdered, and in the face of every mother who has lost a child to war and wakes up in a sweat every night imagining how her child was gunned down or blown to bits.

You can see me in the face of the mother living through genocide who sees her daughter raped and killed in front of her, and has to live with that image and the fact that she wasn’t able to protect her for the rest of her life.

I am Mary, mother of Jesus, And I am anything but demure. I am love, ferocious love, love that loves no matter what. Love that stands by you and doesn’t abandon you even when you feel like you are being crucified by the conditions in your life.

I am pure grit and the determination of faith that stands for good in the face of human error. I will not desert you. I will stand by you from the beginning to the end of your life and I will carry you always in my beautiful, bold, and broken--open heart.

Call on me. I am Mary, mother, ferocious defender, and unwavering supporter of your Christ consciousness and the Power within you. I am here for you.

August 6, 1965 – The Voting Rights Act outlaws the discriminatory literacy tests that had been used to prevent African Americans from voting. Suffrage is finally fully extended to African American women.

August 1, 1923 (2006) – Beatrice Medicine, Standing Rock Sioux anthropologist, focused on the roles of Lakota women in changes facing their cultures in areas including bilingual education, alcohol and drug use, abuse, socialization of children, and identity needs, author of Learning to Be an Anthropologist and Remaining Native.

August 3, 1905 (1995) – Maggie Kuhn, senior rights activist, founded the Gray Panthers.

August 6, 1886 (1916) – Inez Milholland Boissevain, a lawyer and suffrage leader; gowned in white and riding a white horse, she led a suffrage parade in Washington, DC, during Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration.

The Opening and Closing Theme song The Woman in Your Life is You is done with permission of the Composer and Singer Alix Dobkin ((August 16, 1940 – May 19, 2021) Alix Dobkin death was just announced - Thank you for all you did for Lesbians to be recognized and Women to be honored. May you rest in peace. See our Interview with Alix Dobkin on 12/1/2014 at and our Memorial to Alix Dobkin on 11/24/2021 .

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Show Produced Live at Radio KBBF Studio